February 26, 2024
by gpointon
2 Comments
It’s well known that Middle English /ɛr/ became more open in quality and merged with /ar/, while also in some dialects remaining as a distinct phoneme, but now pronounced /ɜː(r)/, leading to alternative forms for many words, of which one … Continue reading
January 27, 2024
by Graham
2 Comments
It is sometimes said that there are so-called ‘primitive’ languages which cannot count beyond two. I find this difficult to believe; but there are certainly languages which distinguish grammatically between one, two and many. They have not simply a singular … Continue reading
June 3, 2022
by Graham
2 Comments
So, the UN has accepted a request from Ankara to change the spelling of the name of the country of which it is the capital, to that used in the written version of the Turkish language. Well, if they also … Continue reading
November 28, 2021
by Graham
1 Comment
The only pronunciation I’ve heard for this letter of the Greek alphabet since it was used for the name of the latest Coronavirus variant stresses the first letter, which is being pronounced to rhyme with both ohm and Tom indiscriminately. … Continue reading
November 6, 2021
by Graham
0 comments
During the past week, I lstened to a fascinating radio programme which included a contribution by the world expert on meerkat behaviour, Tim Clutton-Brock. I was surprised that he pronounced the word for their mating behaviour as /pɒliˈgaɪnəs/. As always … Continue reading
October 25, 2021
by Graham
2 Comments
Thomas West (@IntermarkLS) has tweeted: “In BrE I keep seeing things like “the last address you notified to the company” and “the complaint notified to the police.” This sounds so wrong in AmE (we notify someone of something; we don’t … Continue reading
September 2, 2021
by Graham
3 Comments
I’ve been asked about the pronunciation of /s/ in initial strings of /str/. I know that it is common to pronounce it with a post-alveolar, apical articulation in Glasgow and London (David Abercrombie was talking about its occurrence in Glasgow … Continue reading
August 26, 2021
by Graham
2 Comments
With the increasing number of BBC journalists who have South Asian heritage, we are hearing an ever greater number of examples of a non-traditional pronunciation of the orthographic symbol {t} in words of South Asian origin. I’m thinking in particular, … Continue reading
January 19, 2021
by Graham
4 Comments
Serendipitously, not long after writing my last post, I watched a TV programme called “The Queen: in her own words“, which, as it said on the tin, included many examples of her speaking, the extracts used coming from the whole … Continue reading
June 3, 2020
by Graham
0 comments
This word has achieved a lot of prominence in the last three months, but it is being used in a way that the Oxford English Dictionary doesn’t – yet – recognise. Shield as a verb in English goes back a … Continue reading